Sunday, 12 October 2008

Vanilla sponge puddings with butterscotch caramel sauce

These little puddings are delicious and give layer upon layer of happiness – there’s the soft, vanilla scented sponge covered in the thick oozing butterscotch caramel sauce, made even more perfect if served with vanilla ice cream to give the hot/cold contrast.

Here they are fresh from the oven; they are standing on kitchen paper to dry off from their water bath:

The sponge is light as it’s baked in the oven but sitting in a water bath so you get the benefit of steaming without having to faff around with a steamer on the hob.

Butterscotch sauce, ready for action:

It’s hard to imagine who - dietary limitations and allergies aside - wouldn’t want to eat one of these little puddings. What’s not to like?

To make them prettier and not look wonky I would level the sponge top once cooked as this will become the base on turning out. However, if you do this people will complain that they have been deprived of their crunchy bit. So it’s your call – pretty puddings or happy eaters? I went for happy eaters.

I made the puddings the day before and then reheated them the next day. They were tricky to turn out of the basins so make sure you grease the basins well (I’ve since acquired non-stick little basins, from Tesco of all places, so this shouldn’t happen again):

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.- Grease six 150ml pudding basins.- Cream the butter and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy. Don’t skimp on this stage – give the mixture a good beating.- Beat in the eggs one at a time, don’t worry if the mix starts to curdle slightly.- Beat in the vanilla extract – remember to use extra if you have used caster sugar rather than vanilla sugar.- Fold in the flour and baking powder, then fold in the milk.- Spoon the batter into the pudding basins ensuring that each one is two-thirds full.- Stand the basins in a large, deep roasting dish and pour boiling water into the dish until it comes half way up the sides of the basins.- Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took a while longer – around the 40 minute mark.- Make the butterscotch caramel sauce by putting the sugar in a large saucepan along with 2 tablespoons of water. Melt the sugar over a high heat and shake the pan occasionally. The sugar will melt and become a darker brown colour.- Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the butter – be careful as the mixture might bubble up and spit at you. Stir in the cream and return to the heat.- Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat.- If you are serving straight away, tip the puddings out of the basins into a dish and pour the butterscotch sauce over the top, with some ice cream on the side.- The puddings can be made one day in advance and kept in an airtight container, still in the basins. Reheat the puddings covered in foil for 10-15 minutes at 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.- The sauce can be made up to three days in advance if kept in the fridge. Simply reheat in the microwave when required, or in a saucepan on the hob.- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.- Eat.

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So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

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I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.